Championship experience benefits BC in win over Friars

BOSTON – Boston College has been at the Garden almost too
many times to count in the last 10 years. In that time, Providence
hasn’t been here at all.

For both teams, it showed.

Boston College forward Steven Whitney
(Dave Arnold Photography)

The Eagles overcame an early deficit to beat Providence, 4-2, in
the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament. Johnny
Gaudreau’s second period goal gave the Eagles the edge they
needed to win, and Steven Whitney scored midway through the third
to ice it, sending BC to the Hockey East final for the 16th time,
and the third time in as many years.

“I just thought one of the differences in the game was our
immaturity in being in this type of environment, and (BC’s)
maturity in being in this type of environment,” said
Providence coach Nate Leaman, who in his first season behind the
bench took the Friars out of the cellar and briefly into first
place.

Paul Carey’s unassisted goal on a wraparound gave BC the
first lead of the game just 1:15 in, but less than a minute and a
half later, Barrett Kaib – who’d had his pocket picked
by Carey on the first goal – scored on a feed from Andy
Balysky to tie it.

With 4:33 gone in the first, Derek Army gave the Friars the lead
– marking the second time BC had fallen behind in as many
games after going 684 minutes and change without trailing to finish
the regular season.

“We kind of came out and maybe didn’t execute as
well as we wanted to throughout the game,” Leaman said.
“But we got rolling there, we were down 1-0, and the guys
showed a lot of character getting two quick ones.”

The Friar lead was short-lived, however. Destry Straight tied
the game at 2 with 11:25 to go in the first, just over four minutes
after Army had given PC the edge.

Three minutes and 58 seconds into the second period, Gaudreau
put the Eagles up for good. On a power play, Carey fed Gaudreau in
the right wing corner, and the freshman walked out into the slot,
untouched. Beaudry bit on Gaudreau’s shot fake, and Gaudreau
curled around to get an open look, and buried the puck for a 3-2
lead.

"We try not to let it affect us,” Carey said when asked
about the Eagles coming back from the deficit. “We just keep
a positive attitude and just keep pushing because it's a long 60
minutes and you don't win in the first period."

The Eagles thought they had a 4-2 lead with 7:28 left in the
second, but the officials ruled after a video review that Steven
Whitney had interfered with Beaudry while crashing the net as Barry
Almeida’s odd-angle shot slipped in.

Whitney atoned for taking the goal off the board later. With
eight minutes gone in the third, he gave BC the insurance goal
back, jumping on Almeida’s rebound and backhanding it past a
diving Beaudry.

The loss signals the end of the season for Providence, which
doesn’t have any NCAA at-large hopes. The climb the Friars
made in 2011-12 doesn’t take the sting off its finish, but
their first appearance in the Hockey East semifinals since 2001
gives PC a sunny outlook for the first time in a long time.

“I think it was a proud moment for the program,”
senior captain Danny New said. “Obviously our goal was to go
further than tonight, but I think from a standpoint of the program,
we made a lot of people proud and got ourselves back on track
here.”